The Last Night of Freedom
by NarwhalAttack
Summary: With the cops winding down on the girls' trail, Emily and Alison face challenges in their new relationship. And Emily plans a special surprise for Alison, realizing that she needs to spend as much time with her as she can before the cops bust them.


**This basically takes place post-7x17 and is based on some of the spoilers for 7x18! Leave a review!**

* * *

Chapter 1

Emily tried to focus on the TV, but her eyes kept glancing back at the clock on the wall over and over again, no matter how many times she told herself that she would stop obsessing. It was already pretty dark outside, and Alison was supposed to have been home a while ago. She did believe that everything was all right, but she was itching to see her again. They hadn't had much time together since Alison left to Philly to visit Jason shortly after she and Emily kissed.

Finally, she heard the sound of keys rustling coming from outside, and her head immediately turned to the front door; she eagerly watched the door as she waited for Alison to enter. The blonde seemed exhausted as she stepped inside of the door. She jumped back a little bit when she looked up and saw Emily eagerly watching her.

"Hey!" Alison exclaimed. She dropped her bags. "You weren't waiting, were you?"

Emily rolled her eyes, laughing. " _Of course_ I was waiting for you." She stood up from the couch and rushed over, wrapping her arms around the other girl tightly. "I missed you so much, Ali..."

Alison chuckled quietly. "I missed you, too, Em, but I was only gone for one weekend."

Nonetheless, she hugged Emily back tightly. Emily grabbed a clump of Alison's soft blonde hair, still holding her.

"One weekend too long..." she sighed.

When she pulled back, she asked, "So, how did it go with Jason? What happened?"

Alison shrugged her shoulders, smiling. "I think it was really good. We... really talked... like, _actually_ talked. I feel like it's been forever since I truly felt like I have my brother in my life. We just... we talked about everything there is to talk about. He was a lot more supportive of everything than I was expecting him to be."

"So, you told him _everything_?" Emily asked nervously. "What exactly does _everything_ mean?"

"I mean, I didn't tell him about A.D. I don't want him to be dragged into that. But I... uh... I told him what Archer Dunhill did. I told him that I think that he's the one who did this to us. And he was a bit surprised when I said that I'm keeping the baby, but after I explained everything, he was really good about it. I think he understood why I'm doing what I'm doing," she explained.

"Does he... know?" Emily asked.

"About what?" Alison questioned, and searched Emily's nervous eyes. Immediately, she knew. "Us? Oh... Yeah, he does. I told him. The funny thing is, he wasn't all that surprised."

Emily laughed nervously, blushing. "Really?"

"Yeah, really," she nodded her head. "But he did say that he wants to come see you some time."

"I'd be happy to!" Emily grinned. "I haven't seen him in a while."

"Yeah, well, we can figure that out later. We've got a lot on our plates at the moment," Alison sighed. "I'm honestly so exhausted from everything. I might just crash early."

"Did you already have dinner?" Emily asked brightly. "I can order something."

Alison smiled at how eager she was. "I stopped for dinner on the way home, but that's really sweet of you to offer."

"Ali..." Emily stared at the floor. "I don't want to stress you out more, but Detective Furey's really been on our tails while you were gone. He's been building a case against all of us. Things aren't looking like they're going too well, even with Mona's help."

Alison sighed. She had been hoping to stop thinking about this whole murder thing, but her mind couldn't get away from it. The whole ride home, she couldn't stop thinking about it and all of the repercussions that came with it. She had a bad feeling that they were going down for this, and maybe rightfully so. After all, they were responsible for his death, even if he was a psychopath who did terrible things to them.

"That's why I've been freaking out, to be honest," Alison confessed. "Em, I'm scared... I can't see things ending well. Furey's getting closer and closer to the truth. All evidence is pointing to us. I didn't tell Jason the part about all of us probably going to jail soon."

"We won't let that happen..." Emily bit her lip, but she couldn't even convince herself. She knew that they didn't have much power in this situation. A.D. was dealing all the cards and was in control of their fate. There was only so much that they could do to protect themselves from their downfall, and it wasn't looking too good.

"What can we even do to prevent it from happening, Em?" Alison asked worriedly. "It doesn't feel like there's anything we can do at this point."

Suddenly, Emily regretted bringing up the fact that Detective Furey was closing in on them and building a case against them. She hated seeing Alison so worried. And although it was the truth, there really was no reason to be freaking out, because they couldn't do anything about it right now. Emily just hoped that she could get Alison to sleep well tonight. They would have to meet up with the other girls in the morning and figure out what they were going to do about it. It felt like Mona was truly their last hope.

"We can sleep," Emily told her. She reached over, taking the blonde's hand and squeezing it gently. "I'm sorry for stressing you out even more, Ali. That's not what I was trying to do. I just thought that you should know about what's going on, but all I did was remind you of something you didn't want to think about."

"Don't worry about it," Alison smiled. "But I really should sleep now... I was on the road for a pretty long time... I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, of course," she nodded her head. "You should head up. I'll turn off all the lights and be up there in five, okay?"

"Okay," Alison nodded her head, still smiling.

* * *

The next morning, Emily prepared two cups of coffee and brought them over to Alison, who was sitting on the couch in the living room. She handed one cup to Alison, and kept the other one in her own hands. Then, she seated herself down on the couch next to the blonde.

"Thanks," Alison said, taking a short sip and then setting the cup down on the table in front of them. She pressed her head back against the couch and looked over at Emily. "I'm sorry for all the tossing and turning last night."

Emily didn't even mind that at all. It wasn't that the tossing and turning bothered her while they were sleeping; she was more concerned about the fact that Alison was so stressed out. She didn't like that. She knew their conversation and all the drama surrounding Archer Dunhill was stressing her out. Emily was worried, too. She didn't do much tossing and turning because she never really fell asleep; she was too busy freaking out about what to do.

"Considering everything that's going on in our lives, I'm just happy that one of us was able to get a good night's sleep," Emily told her. She tilted her head to the side, analyzing Alison's face. She wasn't wearing any make up at all, yet she was radiant. Despite everything that was going on, Emily's heart fluttered when she looked at the girl beside her. She placed a hand on the top of Alison's head, stroking her blonde hair so gently. "You look so beautiful in the morning..."

Alison blushed just a bit. A small smile formed on her face, bashful because of Emily's sweet words. And God, the way that Emily looked at her was so breathtaking; she looked at Alison like she was her entire world, and Alison could feel that.

Emily leaned closer, and Alison did the same. Their lips met for a sweet kiss, Alison's tongue barely sweeping the surface of Emily's lips. It was short, yet made both of their hearts race. Once they had pulled back, Emily reached down and took Alison's hand, squeezing it. She stayed close to Alison's body; their faces were still just inches apart.

"And just because you had a bad night, doesn't mean that we can't have a good morning."

Alison smiled harder at the implication. Emily was still gazing at her like she was her everything. Without breaking their gaze, Emily set her coffee cup down on the table in front of her. Both of them mutually leaned back in, pressing their lips together once again. They kissed there for a short bit, before Alison finally broke away.

"Should we go upstairs?" she asked quietly.

Emily nodded her head. The two of them grinned at each other and stood up from the couch. They grabbed each other's hands, climbing up the stairs with their eyes fixed on each other. They continued into the master bedroom, their hands still locked. As they backed into the room, Alison freed one of her hands and reached over, beginning to unzip Emily's jacket. She got the zipper about half of the way down before she noticed something terrible inside of their bedroom: the _Liars Lament_ game board. Shocked and frustrated, she ceased what she was doing. Emily, noticing her shock, turned her head around as well. Her eyes widened when she saw the damn game board sitting there in the room.

They finally let go of each other's hands, staring at the game board together in awe.

Emily turned to Alison. "When did you put this in here?"

Alison tilted her head to the side. "I didn't."

Emily stepped closer to the board, analyzing it for any possible of trace of who brought it in here. She squinted her eyes, noticing another puzzle piece in the center of the board, and reached over to pick it up.

"There's a puzzle piece," she announced, swallowing hard. "Someone must've been in here... someone could _still_ be in here."

This house was finally starting to feel safe again for the both of them after A.D. or A.D's minion horribly vandalized the baby's room. That meant someone was still breaking into Alison's house, watching over them, _messing_ with them. And Emily couldn't tolerate the thought of anyone trying to hurt Alison or their baby. She hated this... she hated A.D. She hated everything that was hurting her happiness. Because finally, she was with the one person she loved more than anyone, yet A.D. was trying to screw that up.

Suddenly, the sound of police sirens filled the room, frustrating her even more. Adding on to that was the loud sound of a knock on the door. Both of them turned their heads rapidly. Emily squeezed Alison's arm gently before rushing out of the bedroom and heading to the front door. Meanwhile, Alison stayed in the bedroom and scanned it, trying to figure out how somebody could have broken into her house _again_. She had been sure to lock all the doors ever since the baby's nursery was destroyed. But she wasn't all that surprised that another terrible thing happened; A.D. had never been one to be stopped by a few mere locked doors.

She turned around and went downstairs to see what was going on. Unsurprisingly, numerous staff members from the Rosewood Police Department had entered the house once Emily opened the door.

"What are you doing here?" Emily demanded, folding her arms as she glared at Barry Maple.

Barry Maple held a document up in front of Emily's face. "Rosewood PD. We've got a search warrant on this house."

Emily turned her head back to look at Alison with a wide mouth. It was a _search warrant_. They were already able to get a search warrant, meaning that they probably weren't too far from piecing the truth together. Soon enough, they would all be arrested for Archer Dunhill's murder.

As more detectives and officers flooded the house, Alison realized that the game board was still in the master bedroom. Worried, she rushed back upstairs. Detectives and officers were already hurrying upstairs to search, making Alison fear that it was too late, and that they would see the game board in there. She had no idea what would happen if the police department found out about A.D. and _Liar's Lament_ , but part of her wondered if it would be for the better. The other part of her knew that A.D. would be pissed if that happened, and would probably release the tape of the girls burying Archer Dunhill's body.

When she arrived in the bedroom, she almost jumped back. There was nothing on the bed anymore. The game board was freaking gone; somebody had taken it out of the room before anyone from the police department could see it. Alison had no idea how A.D. was able to get it out of the bedroom so quickly without a sound.

* * *

After the fearful events of that morning, Emily and Alison met up with the other girls at Spencer's barn. They desperately needed to talk about everything that happened, especially since this meant that they were so damn close to going to jail again.

"We've all been arrested before, and I can't have it happen again!" Hanna cried, running a hand through her hair.

"Well, there really isn't much we can do at this point," Spencer sighed, staring at the floor.

"Can't you have Detective Furey's case thrown out on bias or something?" Hanna desperately asked. "Just confess that you guys were hooking up, and that he got pissed when you broke things off, so he got psycho mad and started to make up lies about you!"

"Detective Furey's already off the case..." Spencer revealed. "I went to the station this morning to see him. I'm not exactly sure why he got kicked off... maybe people found out. But either way, it didn't help us. The only difference now is that Lieutenant Tanner is leading the search... and she really is out to expose us. She's confident that we're guilty."

"Hasn't every officer and detective in Rosewood been confident that we're guilty in the past?" Hanna raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, and they usually weren't right. This time, we _are_ guilty, Hanna. We did this... we freaking did this, and we're probably going down for it. I really do think it's all over," Spencer swallowed hard.

"We've come this far just to give up?" Emily folded her arms. "Spencer, you always come up with a plan... we always figure out how to fix things. We've been through so much... how can we lose it all now? Because of a psychopath who tortured Ali? He deserved what he got, and you know it!"

Alison squeezed Emily's shoulder gently, trying to calm her down. She always got quite heated whenever the topic came to Dunhill.

" _Of course_ he deserved it," Spencer said. "But according to the law, that doesn't matter. The crappy cops in this town were never gonna handle Dunhill. We weren't in charge of bringing him justice; they were. But we did it anyway, so now we're guilty. _God_ , I wish Toby were still a cop here... he could've done something."

"He couldn't have done anything to save our asses," Alison shook her head. "As good as it could've been to have someone on our side, there's nothing that can stop the evidence against us."

"So what now?" Hanna asked, biting her lip nervously. She was afraid of the answer, just as the other girls were.

"We wait and see... and possibly enjoy our last night of freedom," Spencer laughed bitterly.

"You can't be serious," Hanna tilted her head to the side. "Spence..."

"I'm serious. I ran into Toby at the Radley today. Tanner called him in for questioning. He said that he talked to her, and she's really confident in her case, and she's building a strong one. He asked me if I had anything to do with Dunhill's murder, and I could barely look him in the eyes. We did this... and they know we did this. They're taking us down, and it doesn't seem like there's anything we can do about it anymore," Spencer explained.

Spencer glanced over at Aria, who hadn't said a single word this entire time. She was still suspicious of her; Aria hadn't had a turn in the game yet, and her earring was on the floor of Emily and Alison's baby nursery. Spencer, however, didn't think it was possible. She wanted to believe that Aria would never hurt them.

* * *

The words Spencer said kept ringing in Emily's head after she left the barn. _Last night of freedom_. It was probably true. She wasn't sure how long she had left before the Rosewood PD arrested them, but she knew it was coming soon. And she wanted to spend her last night of freedom with the person she loved.

Even though she had taken the day off of work, she told Alison that she had to go in that afternoon for swim practice. She didn't want to leave Alison alone, but she had big plans in mind. So, she asked Spencer if Alison could stay with her, since they had searched her house earlier, and A.D. had already been breaking in there several times.

And of course, Emily wasn't actually working at Rosewood High School that day. Instead, she went out to the woods to the Kissing Rock, a place that went way back for her. There were a lot of memories surrounding that place. With her, she had brought several blankets, pillows, candles, and food items. She layered the blankets on the floor near the rock, and set up a cozy little place there. She put fluffy pillows. Then, she surrounded the whole cozy area with beautiful candles, which she was planning on lighting up a little later.

She stepped back, admiring the place. It was so lovely... she couldn't wait to call Alison there. Maybe they were going to jail soon, but that just meant that Emily had to spend as much time as she could with Alison. It was already evening by the time she finished decorating, so it was time to call Alison over.

Before she did that, she arranged some food around there. She wanted to make this a really nice date, and that included providing her with food.

Once that was placed, she pulled out her cell phone and called Alison.

 _"Em, hey! What a coincidence! I was just about to call you, too. Um... I'm actually on my way out from Spencer's place. She had to leave just a bit ago. I think she's spending the night with Toby at his cabin... I'm not sure what that's supposed to imply, but... anyway, I'm gonna be heading home now, okay? I know you don't want me to be alone right now with everything that's happened there, but I don't wanna stick around at Spencer's for too long extra. So, are you gonna be done with work soon? It's getting kinda late, you know."_

 _"Yeah, I know. And wow, Spencer and Toby! I'll have to grill her about that later. Anyway, um... don't go home. I actually already... left work. Can you come to the woods?"_

 _"The... woods? Why? Please tell me this is actually you, and not some A.D. voice-changer scheme..."_

 _"No, it's me, Ali. It really is. It's important, so can you just tell me that you'll be here soon?"_

 _"Um... sure. I guess I'll go. This better actually be important."_

 _"It is! I promise! We can talk when you get here. Come by the Kissing Rock."_

 _"The Kissing Rock? Em, did you find something important? Should I tell the other girls to come, too?"_

 _"No, don't! Now stop asking so many questions and just come here, okay? I'll explain everything soon."_

 _"Okay, fine. I'll come. See you in a few."_

 _"See you."_

With that, Emily hung up the phone, grinning widely.


End file.
